Saturday, August 08, 2009

There's a full slate of news on this Saturday August morning. First up, the NY Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox by a score of 2-0 Friday night. It took them 15 innings to do it as pitcher after pitcher put goose eggs up on the scoreboard. For the Sox, Josh Beckett pitched seven brilliant innings. He was followed by Okajima, Bard, Ramirez, Papelbon, Delcarmen, Saito and the eventual loser, Junichi Tazawa. Junichi had just been called up from double A Portland and elevated a fastball to AROD. The result was a two run tater that ended the marathon. Boston is now 4 1/2 games in back of the pinstripers. Not good. Yankee manager Joe Girardi and game hero Alex Rodriguez had these words for the reporters after the game...

"This would've been a very hard game to lose," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Nobody left. It just shows the importance of the game."

"Both teams were remarkable," Rodriguez said. "It was a heavyweight fight, and we were fortunate to have the last hit."

In other Red Sox news, the John Smoltz comeback bid for Boston ended yesterday when the veteran pitcher was designated for assignment. Asked whether this might be the end of his career, Smoltzie replied with this...

“All I can say is I will know the answer come next week,” said Smoltz. I’m just going to go home and sort out a lot of thoughts. Nothing I say right now is going to change anything unless I have some time to think things over."

Good luck to you, John, and thanks so much for trying. You gave it all your all but unfortunately your tank was running on empty.

Lastly, Big Papi David Ortiz will address the assembled media this afternoon at 12:30pm EDT. You'll be able to find television coverage on NESN and NESN HD. I'll be watching.

Today's game, pitting Clay Buchholz and CC Sabathia, begins at 4:10pm EDT and will be televised by Fox and Fox HD. A Red Sox win is just about a must but you have to figure that New York is favored to win it just based on the pitching matchup alone. But that's why they play the games...it ain't over 'till it's over and this one hasn't even started. Yet. GO SOX.

Click on this post's title for more on last night's Yankee win and as always, BE WELL. Oh, I almost forgot. Nadia and I saw a great movie yesterday, a film I heartily recommend. It's called JULIE AND JULIA and features a four star performance by Meryl Streep. She plays food icon Julia Child and she is flat-out brilliant, Oscar worthy. Have a great weekend.

2 Comments:

Here in New York, on Thursday, before the first game, Francona was interviewed by a radio talk show host. He sounded so down that he brought my spirits down with him, even though I had been cheerfully looking forward to the first game. I felt as if he knew something that the rest of us did not. I wondered if he regretted the Masterson move, which still seems incomprehensible to me. What does the acquisition of Martinez say to Youkilis, Ortiz, Pedroia, Drew, Bay, et. al., except "We don't have confidence in any of you, so we're getting a real hitter." Can you ever have too much good pitching? Here in New York, on Thursday, before the first game, Francona was interviewed by a radio talk show host. He sounded so down that he brought my spirits down with him, even though I had been cheerfully looking forward to the first game. I felt as if he knew something that the rest of us did not. I wondered if he regretted the Masterson move, which still seems incomprehensible to me. What does the acquisition of Martinez say to Youkilis, Ortiz, Pedroia, Drew, Bay, et. al., except "We don't have confidence in any of you, so we're getting a real hitter." Can you ever have too much good pitching?

Hello to you, Victoria. It's great to hear from you. I think the aquisition of Victor Martinez gives us another great bat and will let 'Tek, etc. have more days off. In addition, Tito now has more flexibility for this stretch of the famous "Dog Days" of August. I like the move even though Masty was a needed arm for the 'pen or in a pinch, the starting rotation, which is getting thinner by the day...frightfully so. It happens every year. Josh and JonL are the guys we can count on EVERY time if we can score a few runs. A BIG if so far.

You made some great points, as always. I hope your summer is going great as we quickly approach September. For the Sox, it might and probably will be a Wild Card race to post season play.

We need to take the last two games of this series. Thanks for stopping in. Have a great weekend. Peter

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